By | April 21, 2008
The Kirov Ballet knows how to rise to the occasion. It concluded its three-week City Center season on a high note with Balanchine’s “Ballet Imperial” on Sunday afternoon. Up to that point, however, much was problematic with the company’s all-Balanchine bill.
There was enough that was extraordinary about the Kirov’s Balanchine performances between the late 1990s and the early 2000s that one felt the company might actually be opening a new chapter in Balanchine performance. Since then, however, the ballet administration has methodically denied Balanchine roles to many deserving Kirov men and women while shoehorning sometimes unsuitable favorites into every conceivable position. Ballet companies could not ever be called meritocracies; nevertheless, I’ve found what has happened at the Kirov particularly disheartening because, if properly cast, these ballets could be given enlightening performances by this company.
On Sunday, the opening “Serenade” saw pallid performances by the three lead women: Nadezhda Gonchar as the Russian Girl, Ekaterina Kondaurova as the Dark Angel, and Victoria Tereshkina as the Waltz soloist. Each of these women has been so overcast on this tour that it would have been unrealistic to expect too much from their final performances. Ms. Kondaurova seemed drained, Ms. Gonchar no more than well-drilled, and Ms. Tereshkina miscast. One felt that her powerful energy and technique would be better employed as Dark Angel. Evgeny Ivanchenko, as Ms. Tereshkina’s waltz partner, was usually gallant but sometimes seemed disoriented, approaching Ms. Tereshkina at one point as if to ask for her phone number. In the final trio, in which the Waltz Girl is left bereft after vying with Dark Angel for the affections of a cavalier, Alexander Sergeyev seemed nervous about the partnering and indeed treated this lushly romantic episode almost as if it were an exercise in pas de deux class.
“Rubies” was led by Olesia Novikova, who danced the lead at all four “Rubies” over the weekend, which is no way for any dancer to manifest his or her potential. She was tight and plodding in the early parts of her performance on Sunday. She did improve as the ballet went on, but her interpretation was laden with arch mannerisms. Opposite Ms. Novikova, Vladimir Shklyarov was making his debut in “Rubies.” Mr. Shklyarov is a promising jeune premier, but he is not a natural Balanchine dancer. Balanchine legs are typically fast, light, and acerbic, but Mr. Shklyarov’s are plush and comparatively imprecise. Mr. Shklyarov seemed to be compensating for his lack of authentic Balanchine attack by overstating his movements. Sometimes his flamboyance worked, and he shone in his furiously spinning exit. But while he could access the show-business ingenue traits of the role, he could not plumb its more noble aspects — the man, after all, is a fusion of prince, jester, and vaudevillian.
Ms. Kondaurova was back to dance the role of the “pinup” soloist in “Rubies.” Ms. Kondaurova is new to the role, and while she certainly did have mystery, glamour, and sexuality, she was too harsh and glacial. Sometimes she appeared to confuse the role of the pinup with that of Myrtha in “Giselle.”
In the final “Ballet Imperial,” Alina Somova replaced an injured Diana Vishneva. Ms. Vishneva was certainly missed, but Ms. Somova made a commendable effort. Toning down her garish extensions has allowed her to stabilize her technique and add breath to her movement. Partnering Ms. Somova, Andrian Fadeyev made his consort role ballast of the entire ballet. In the first two movements, he seemed in physical disrepair, but he made a stirring rebound in the finale. More importantly, he invested the role with its own emotional complexity.
There was some genuine dazzle to the pas de trois, led by Ekaterina Osmolkina. When I saw her dance this several years ago, she was performing it in an all-purpose classical manner, but on Sunday she danced with more edge and energy and attack. She was not coasting through this. Ms. Osmolkina was well flanked here by Mr. Sergeyev, now considerably more engaged than he’d been in “Serenade,” and Maxim Zyuzin, who jumped high and turned better than he often does.
All three ballets were penned in by the City Center stage, particularly “Rubies,” which has fewer dancers than the other two ballets but abounds in explosive horseplay that demands elbow room. By the time the company reached “Ballet Imperial,“ though, the entire ensemble seemed unfettered and unburdened, and brought the ballet and the season to an exhilarating close.
